Adobe Open Screen Project — Bringing Flash to a Phone Near You

Adobe is determined to bring desktop quality Flash video to all of the major phone platforms through the Open Screen Project. The objective of the OSP is to “provide a consistent run-time environment for open web browsing and standalone applications — taking advantage of Adobe® Flash® Player and, in the future, Adobe® AIR®. This consistent run-time environment will remove barriers to publishing content and applications across desktops, mobile phones, televisions, and other consumer electronics.” In other words, Adobe wants to see Flash on every electronic device you might touch.

Adobe Flash 10.1 is expected to be the best mobile implementation of the web technology yet, and the company is announcing partnerships that will see it launch in a big way by next year. The latest company to join the efforts of the OSP is Google, who want to bring Flash to their web applications. The adoption of this version of Flash will make mobile devices handle Flash technology much like the desktop equivalent, and phone makers are chomping at the bit to bring a full web experience to their customers.

Adobe is planning to have versions of Flash 10.1 for Google Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, Palm’s WebOS and Windows Mobile by next year. Nvidia and Qualcomm have joined with Adobe to bring full Flash to their mobile devices. The rush for full web browsing is on. Flash on smartphones is a very good thing, but we should be careful what we wish for. A full Flash implementation will mean we can finally watch those ads on the phone that up until now have not worked on the phone.

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